Atop the modernist disco beat and lush strings of "The Negatives," Hood urges listeners to escape to the furthest place from their house until their spirit completely breaks, and then to "watch the birds fly round, just like the first time." It could well serve as the band's prerequisite for creating intense and innovative glitch-pop masterpieces.
Listening to a new Hood album tends to be like hearing the band for the first time. Like its British countryside hometown of Leeds, Hood's aesthetic is bleak, autumnal, and rustic. The group's 2005 full-length release, OUTSIDE CLOSER, blends Hood's pastoral outsider ethos with dub and hip-hop rhythms, electronics, and orchestral beds, as hinted on the band's previous album, COLD HOUSE. The gentle, pristine guitars of "End of One Train Working" and the danceable melancholia of "The Lost You" are far cries from Hood's lo-fi noise-pop roots, though the whispery, ghost-like delivery of singer Christopher Adams remains unmistakable. Stark yet dynamic, OUTSIDE CLOSER waxes and wanes like the arc of a symphony, with songs that can bring listeners deep into themselves, or to the furthest place that they know.
Audio Mixers: Hood; Choque Hosein.
Recording information: Avenue Hill; Hall Place Studios; The Gauci Rooms.
Photographer: Hood.
Hood: Christopher Adams, Richard Adams .
Personnel: Nicola Hodgkinson (vocals); Omar Püente (violin); M. Wright (flute, clarinet); E. Marcasi (trumpet, horns); G.S. Brown (piano); I. Hayood (drums); Choque Hosein (percussion).
Rolling Stone (p.77) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[H]ere they limit the electronics to a glitchy underpinning for deliciously dreamy guitars..."
Uncut (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Surging volume is still far outweighted by wispy melancholy, but the contrast is rewarding."
Magnet (p.101) - "As you venture deep into the band's dense thicket of sound, the acoustic guitar, violin and accordion create a naturalistic neverland..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]here's a slow-burning moodiness - similar in atmospherics to the re-formed Bark Psychosis - together with a new directness."
Hood - Outside Closer Songs
| 1 | (Int) | | | |
| 2 | Negatives | | | |
| 3 | Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive | | | |
| 4 | End of One Train Working | | | |
| 5 | Winter 72 | | | |
| 6 | Lost You See All 3 | | | |
| 7 | Still Rain Fell | | | |
| 8 | 1. Fading Hills | | | |
| 9 | Closure | | | |
| 10 | This Is It Forever | | | |
Outside Closer Music Review
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